Lost in the Crowd
by Kitsune Moonstar
Summary: AU.  A chance encounter changes Nanao's New Year's plans.


Author's note: I do not own Bleach or its characters. This is AU.

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><p><strong>Lost in the Crowd<strong>

Nanao winced slightly and sighed. She should have known this was a bad idea. Why on earth had she let Rangiku and the other girls convince her to celebrate New Year's like this? There was still another hour until the new year began, but Nanao was already chilled thanks to the New York winter night, and there were far too many people here in Times Square for her to be comfortable. Furthermore, she had lost her friends an hour ago, and finding them in this crowd would be next to impossible. She had texted them to let them know she was all right, but Nanao had yet to decide on her next move.

She did not regret flying into New York to spend the holidays with her friends. Rangiku, Isane, and Nemu were all doing a year abroad at various universities in the area. The four girls had been friends in high school, but while Rangiku, Isane, and Nemu were all studying at Waseda University back home in Japan, Nanao had been accepted to Cambridge University in England, and that was an opportunity she couldn't resist. Before this trip, she hadn't actually seen her friends in person in almost three years.

The four of them had a wonderful time up until tonight. Then Rangiku had gotten the bright idea that what they really needed was a proper New York City New Year's Eve. That meant dressing up and going down to Times Square. And while the other girls seemed to be enjoying themselves (at least up until the point that Nanao had lost them in the crowd), but all Nanao had gotten so far tonight was a headache. She had decided that she much preferred a traditional Japanese New Year's celebration. Letting out another sigh, Nanao decided what she needed at the moment was a hot drink, and then she could come up with a plan for the rest of the evening. She was thinking that she would probably just go back to their hotel room.

A group of young men pushing their way through the crowd jostled Nanao badly, and she found herself struggling to stay upright. In fact, she stumbled right into someone. A pair of hands steadied her shoulders.

"Oh. Excuse me." It slipped out in Japanese instead of English.

"Don't worry," a warm baritone voice replied in the same language. "It's always a mess out here on New Year's. You look a little lost."

Nanao turned to face a tall man with chestnut hair and warm grey eyes. He smiled down at her.

"I was just about to try and find an exit actually. My friends are somewhere in the middle of all this and having a blast, but I don't think I can last any longer."

He smiled down at her. "Not like home, is it?"

Nanao blinked, and he laughed.

"Shunsui Kyoraku. I'm from Kyoto. Come on. You look chilled to the bone. Let's get you out of this crowd and someplace where you can get something hot inside you."

Before Nanao really knew what was happening, she found herself being ushered out of Times Square and hustled into a taxi. Twenty minutes later, Shunsui was leading her into a rather nondescript building. In the space of the taxi ride, she had learned that he was an author who lived in England most of the time. He was in New York for a book signing and to see some friends. His best friend from home was currently in New York as well, and they were getting together for New Year's since neither of them had any family close by.

Her breath caught as they entered the building. The outside might not look like much, but the inside looked exactly like a tradition Japanese restaurant. Shunsui helped her get her coat off, hanging it up on a hook along with his own coat. Shunsui's eyes widened slightly as he took in the dress she wore. It was made from kimono fabric and bore a pattern of pale pink cherry blossoms against a charcoal grey back ground. It also matched Shunsui the fabric of Shunsui's tie which was a rather remarkable coincidence.

"So, Nanao-chan," he'd been calling her that since he'd learned her name. "Are you ready for a taste of home?"

"What do you mean?"

Shunsui led her to one of the many little private rooms and slid the door open and nudged her inside. "You'll see. Jyuu, I brought a guest."

The silver haired man inside laughed. "That was the point of the dare. I thought it was going to take you longer."

The man then grinned at her. "Welcome. I'm Jyuushiro Ukitake. You've already met Shunsui."

Nanao tilted her head to the side slightly. "What exactly is going on here?"

Shunsui gestured her to take a seat. "To make a long story short. Jyuu eloped on me last week. And since he and Retsu didn't want me to feel like a third wheel, they wanted me to bring someone tonight. One thing led to another, and Jyuu ended up betting me that I couldn't find someone would appreciate a traditional Japanese New Year's dinner spur of the moment tonight. And then you walked right into me, looking miserable and homesick. It must be fate as we even match."

Nanao laughed at that took a seat. "The dress was a gift from one of my friends. I have no idea where she got it."

"Well, we're quite happy to have you join our little feast," Jyuushiro said.

A dark haired woman chose that moment to join them, carrying with her the traditional lacquer box that contained the food for New Year's Eve. She smiled at Nanao.

"I see Shunsui managed to convince someone to join us. I hope the boys have been behaving."

"Retsu, you wound me." Shunsui gave a dramatic sigh.

Retsu just laughed. "I know you too well for that to work on me."

The four of them tucked into the meal. Nanao hadn't had anything like this in ages. Oh, she could get Japanese food in England, but often it did not taste like she remembered. This meal did however. A waitress brought them pots of hot tea, and Nanao was grateful to find there was at least one other variety besides green tea. The woman also brought them bowls of ozoni as well as platters of sushi and sashimi.

As they ate, Nanao found herself drawn into the ongoing conversation, and before too long the subject had turned to herself. There turned out to be an odd number of coincidences between her story and Shunsui's. For instance, Shunsui had attended Oxford rather than Cambridge, but like Nanao, he'd gone to university in England. In fact, they had the same fields of study if rather different areas of interest. It did get to the point when Shunsui and Nanao deeply engrossed in a debate about the influence of Celtic and Norse mythologies and languages in Tolkien's works that the other pair at the table threw up their hands and ignored them.

It was one of the nicest New Year's celebrations Nanao had experienced in ages. Despite just meeting these people, Nanao felt very much at home with them, and this was much more her speed than wild partying all night. By the time midnight approached, they were sipping sake and nibbling on an assortment of mochi; Nanao was utterly content. She was warm, it had been a delicious meal, and the conversation was lovely. True there would be no going out to the coast or climbing a mountain to see the first sunrise of the year or visiting a shrine just after midnight, but it had been a little piece of home when she needed it.

Nanao was yawning slightly when midnight rolled around. She and Shunsui said their goodbyes to Jyuushiro and Retsu, and Nanao let Shunsui help her with a coat and flag down a taxi for them. He saw her back to her hotel and walked her to the door. With a warm smile, he tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"Thank you for the lovely evening, Nanao-chan. I appreciate you being willing to spend an evening with perfect strangers. I'm very glad it was you that I ended up running into."

Then Shunsui kissed her cheek. He left her with his card tucked in a paperback book and a promise that she would call him up sometime when they were both back in England. She headed up to her room with a happy smile and some very good memories as well as the possibility of something new to come. Not a bad start to the new year.


End file.
